Kurt Gunnar Weckström (4 December 1911 – 7 January 1983) was a Finnish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

. He earned 35 caps for the

Finland national football team The Finland national football team (, ) represents Finland in men's international football competitions and is controlled by the Football Association of Finland, the governing body for football in Finland, which was founded in 1907. The team ...

and was a member of the Finland squad at the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

Career

Weckström started his career in the

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

working class side Töölön Vesa, playing in the

Finnish Workers' Sports Federation The Finnish Workers' Sports Federation (, ''TUL'', , ''AIF'') is a Finland, Finnish amateur sports organization founded in 1919. In addition to the competitive sports, TUL focuses on youth activities and youth education as well as offering activit ...

(TUL) Championship series. Due to the 1918

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, Finnish football was divided, TUL and the Finnish Football Association (SPL) had their own leagues and the national team was composed of SPL players only. Weckström won the TUL Championship title in 1930 and was a member of the TUL football team at the

1931 Workers' Summer Olympiad The 1931 Workers' Olympiad was the third edition of the International Workers' Olympiads. The games were held from 19 to 26 July in Vienna, Austria. Some 100,000 athletes participated in the Olympiad, including those taking part at the mass gym ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. Soon after the Olympiad, he defected to the ″bourgeoisie″ KIF Helsinki, which made him eligible for the national team. Weckström debuted for Finland in October 1931 against

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. In the Finland squad at the 1936 Summer Olympics, he was one of the eight former TUL players who had defected to the Finnish Football Association side.

Club honours

* Finnish Workers' Sports Federation Championship: 1930 * Finnish Championship: 1936, 1938

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weckstrom, Kurt 1911 births 1983 deaths Footballers from Helsinki Men's association football forwards Finnish men's footballers Finland men's international footballers Footballers at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Finland Mestaruussarja players Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi players 20th-century Finnish sportsmen